He hung up his coat and said, “It couldn’t be more perfect. Thank you, and I’m so glad you included Angela and Joey.”

As his mouth came down over hers, Biggs hollered, “Quincy Gritt, get in here, son.”

Quincy grinned against her lips. “I want more of those later.”

He draped his arm around her shoulders, kissing her temple as they entered the living room, where a WELCOME HOME banner hung above the fireplace, and on the mantel was the picture of him and Roni kissing on the slide that had been on their nightstand. There were several other pictures from the apartment there, too, and new ones of him and Roni that they’d taken since the scavenger hunt. The room fell silent as his gaze moved over Roni’s couch and his orange chair. Everyone watched as he tried to make sense of his and Roni’s furniture being there. Their books filled the shelves, and his GED was framed and hanging on the wall beside Roni’s diploma from Juilliard. Their crooked Christmas tree with the same presents underneath it that had been there when he’d gone into rehab was tucked into the corner of the room.

“Welcome home, Quincy,” Roni said softly, gazing up him. “I thought we could use a fresh start, so I rented Dixie’s house. It’s only two hundred dollars more than what we were paying for your apartment, and I can pay the difference. Your belief in me and my dancing really got to me, and with your encouragement and some helpful things I learned about myself in therapy, I decided to talk with Raya and Elisa about putting together a solo contemporary dance performance a couple of times a year at the playhouse. It’ll be my own thing, not through the dance studio. Elisa supports it, and Raya thinks it’s a great idea.”

They both had tears in their eyes as he said, “Baby, all of this, and that?”

She shrugged. “Is it too much too fast?”

He gathered her in his arms. “No, baby. It’s perfect, just like you. But you’re not paying the extra rent.” Chuckles from the guys and awws from the girls rose around them as he kissed her, earning whistles and cheers. “This year we rent the house,” he said quietly. “Next year maybe we’ll get a puppy.” He touched his lips to hers, and the room went silent. “And then a ring, and the next year a wedding.” He tightened his hold on her. “Plenty of time to practice making babies as we make our way to our future.” More hoots and cheers rang out, and he crushed her to him. “Thank you for accepting me and my baggage.”

She gazed up at him with so much love in her eyes and in her heart he was drenched in it as she said, “I love you and all your gritty truths, Quincy, and I always will.”

As he lowered his lips to hers, Lincoln yelled, “Ikissbooful!” and just like that, Quincy was finally, ecstatically, home.